To counter the imminent rise of Narendra Modi after his thumping victory in the Gujarat assembly elections, many in the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) are looking to another successful chief minister: Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Speaking at a BJP event on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birthday, which the BJP celebrates as Sushasan Diwas(Good Governance Day), party president Nitin Gadkari waxed eloquent about Chouhan's performance in Madhya Pradesh and almost failed to mention the Gujarat chief minister.

Nitin Gadkari and M. Venkaiah Naidu at a function to celebrate the 88th birthday of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Terming Chouhan as the epitome of good governance, Gadkari said, "The Madhya Pradesh government has managed to increase its agricultural growth rate from 2.4 per cent per annum to 18 per cent in the last few years. This is phenomenal. He has done such a good job that there is widespread rural prosperity in the state."

Gadkari went on to take part of the credit for Madhya Pradesh's progress.

"When I had gone to Bhopal some years ago, the agricultural growth rate was dismal. I told Chouhan that I will give you 15 on 100 for your performance. When he asked me what should be done, I told him to invest heavily in irrigation," the BJP president said.

"He (Chouhan) brought vast tracts of land in the state under irrigation, completed all the canal and irrigation projects ahead of time, undertook steps towards water management. MP has been transformed," he added.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Further showcasing Chouhan's administrative prowess, Gadkari said the state government plans to divert excess water from the Narmada to the Shipra river, which would help increase agricultural productivity in the Malwa region.

In contrast to his long eulogy of the Chouhan regime, Gadkari made just a passing reference to the work done by Modi. "Gujarat government has built more than five lakh check dams," he said.

Gadkari's praise of the MP CM is symptomatic of the efforts by a section of the BJP to drive the point that Modi isn't the only CM who has scored high on the development front.

This is aimed at punching holes in Modi's prime ministerial bid, which is based on the assertion that he is the only mass leader and the main icon of development in the BJP.

This effort is said to have the backing of the RSS as well. Chouhan is a known favourite with the RSS as he is said to have given patronage to RSS-affiliated outfits in various ways.

He has also organised Hindutva-related events such as the mass Surya Namaskar and taken strict action against religious conversion. Modi, in contrast, was opposed by the Gujarat unit of the RSS during the recent assembly elections.

In a recent interview, Chouhan has been quoted as having said that Modi shouldn't be considered the only PM candidate in the BJP. He asserted that Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh and his own government in MP have done equally good work.

In the interview, Chouhan also insinuated that Modi had the advantage of governing a state that was already developed, whereas he and Singh had to "start from scratch".

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